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THE TRUE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT REL/^TIVE TO THE CONDUCT OF THE 
WAR WITH A VIEW TO THE RESTORATION OP THE UNION. 



SPEECH 



HON. ELIJAH WAED, 

OF NEW YORK,*' 
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
. r JANUARY 9, 1865. 



The House having under consideration the motion to reconsider the yoto by which the House on the 15th of 
last Juno rejected a juiut resolution (H. No. 16) submiltiuf to the Legislatures of the several States a propo- 
siliou to ameud the Constitution of the United Stata.s — 

Mr. WARD said : 

Mr. Speaker : It is not my intention to discuss at this time and place the causes 
which have inaugurated the terrible rebellion which has already cost the Republic such 
a frightful waste of life and treasure. It is enough for me to know that a death-blow 
has been aimed at the heait of the American Union, to feel indignant at the outrage and 
solicitous to avert it. It is enough ibr me to know that a sacrilegious attempt has been 
made to break up the wisest form of government that human wisdom ever devised, to 
feel it my duty to join in the effort to chastise the perpetrators of so great a crime. I 
have not approved of all that has been done under the sanction of the war power. I 
have deemed it proper to protest, in the name of the loyal and law-abiding constituency 
I have the honor to represent on this floor, against certain acts of the Executive and 
Congress, which, in my opinion, have been the means of prolonging this sanguinary war; 
but I am settled in the conviction that secession is treason, and that as such it niust be 
put down at all hazards and at any cost. If secession succeeds, republican liberties 
are lost forever, aud the Government, failing to vindicate its "power, would iorfeit the 
consideration and respect of every civilized nation on earth. If the heresy of secession 
were to be recognized as a canon of our political faith, there would be an end to our 
Government. Let Louisiana secede unhindered, aud then, when that act has beeu 
accomplished, what is to prevent her from handinsj that State over to England or any 
other Power, commanding as she does the mouth of the great Mississippi ? This she 
most assuredly has a right to do if she has a right to secede, thus closing up the " Father 
of Waters," and excluding all the States on its borders from a market. The same rale 
would apply to any other seceded State. Hence the duty of every American patriot, 
whatever his station or condition, to uphold the Government in its efforts to compel the 
seceded Slates to respect the Constitution and the laws of the country. Upon thia 
conviction of duty 1 have ever acted since the first insult to our flag was offered. The 
same abiding sense of the responsibility which rests upon me as a Representative of the 
people in Congress will, I trust, carry me. unflinchingly through whatever phase may yet 
remain undeveloped in the fearful drama which has been so long in process of action. 
If the conduct ot the war had not been marked by some of the most startling usurpa- 



tions of power that ever made a free people tremble for their liberties, my voice should 
never have been raised except ia the way of encouragement and sympathy. 

Much wonder has freqnenily been expressed, Mr. Speaker, that in this fearful crisis 
through which our bleeding country is now passing, in the awful presence of the grand 
and sublime uprising of the people of this nation, no master spirit has yet risen in the 
midst ot' our assemblage capable to stay the uplifted hand, and gifted with that peculiar 
sagacity which employs the acquired light of jesterday in the selection of a path lor to- 
morrow. Whatever may be the cause, it cannot be denied that the present crisis has 
most signally failed in the production of those towering intellectualities whose impress 
never fails to mark itself deeply upon the mold of their times, and which during all our 
former trials as a nation have been wont to direct the destinies of the Republic trium- 
phantly through the fiery paths of sedition and conspiracy. Hence the blunders and 
mismanagements which have ?fliaracterized the conduct ot this war. The spirit which 
was wont to kindle the voices of former statesmen as if with a coal from the altar is no 
longer manifest in the places of power. Under these circumstances, and in view of the 
obstacles which we may yet have to contend with before. the blessings of peace can be 
restored to our distracted country, it behooves every n^au in the position I have the 
honor to occupy, however humble his pretensions or capacity, fearlessly to present his 
views on the great questions now at issue, in order that out of the very multitude of 
counsels some good and practical result may be attained, 

I have observed that the more entirely the objects which stand in the way of the execu- 
tion of any purpose are ignored, the more easy it becomes to lay down plans for the 
perfect management of the affairs of the country, military and financial. Overlook the 
rivers and the mountains, the distance and the atmospheric phenomena, the reluctance 
upon one side and the resistance upon the other, and to construct the most infallible pro- 
gramme for the suppression of the rebellion is one of the easiest of the undertakings. 
To overlook the laws of trade, the limits of the popular power, and the propensity of 
mankind to prefer their own to ajiy other interest, and to prescribe a financial policy 
which shall carry the country tafely through the war and its consequences is a work not 
above the powers of the most ordinary capacity. Individ.uals entirely able at a single 
effort or less to solve all the problems of our condition ar^easily to be found. The 
country is rather redundant of tbem than otherwise. They cross us on all sides, in the 
newspapers and on the street corners. But that which alike'marks all their solutions is 
the omission of more or less and sometimes of all the real elements of the calculation. 
*' On to Richmond " is easily said. " Order a levy en masse'*, and advance all along the 
line " is a suggestion so magnificent as to give an air of pusillanimity to the inquiry 
whether its execution is practicable. Issue legal-tender notes ad libiium, tax without 
measure, and borrow without limit, are pieces of advice which are all the more accepta- 
ble, perhaps, because they who propose them refrain from disclosing that there are 
points beyond which neither of these sources of revenue can be made available. For 
my own part, sir, I shall- not take upon myself the invidious task of attempting to solve 
the perplexing problem o( the war, nor yet of suggesting any panacea for the cure of 
existing evils. I simply desire to offer a few remarks which are forced upon me by the 
constantly recurring deviations from the avowed object for which this devastating war 
was originally and authoritatively declared to be waged. I feel that I am somewhat 
entitled to the indulgence of the House when I venture to raise my voice as a warning 
to those in power that the mass of the people no longer recognize them as their repre- 
sentatives in a glorious struggle ; that they no longer consider the war as a war for the 
salvation of the country, but as having degenerated to a strife about a collateral issue 
utterly foreign to the cause which they entered so heartily to sustain. 

Sir, when the rebellion first broke out I had the honor of being a member-elect of 
this body, and from the day that 1 took my seat on this floor I have never sought to em- 
barrass the Government in its efforts to bring back the seceded States under the glorious 
flag of that Union which had protected them all so long and so well. 

In the extra session of 1861, the House of Representatives declared by a solemn act 
" that the war was not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any pur- 
pose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with 
the established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of 
the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of 
the several States unimpaired." Had the noble and patriotic sentiments enunciated in 
that resolution been made the rule of action by both branches of the Government, the war 



would, 1 believe', before this time have been terminated ; for whatever may be said of the 
proud and indomitable spirit with which the people of the South have carried on the war, 
and of their attitude of haughty defiance, I am fully convinced that if the olive branch 
had been tendered in that spirit of magnanimity which becomes a dignified Government 
after it has vindicated its power, the repentant rebels, at least the greatest portion of 
them, seeing the folly of their ways, would long ere this have returned to their 
allegiance. 

This Government did not begin the war. The seceded States, at the time the rebel- 
lion was inaugurated, had nothing to complain of; no overt act had been committed by 
the Government, none of their prei'ogatives had been interfered with, none of their cit- 
izens had been burdened by taxation, all their rights and institutions were under the 
protection of the United States. They have gone out from among us under the false 
pretense that they foresaw in the future that they should lose their just political power 
and influence in the Union, and acting upon this self-imposed delusion they have drawn 
the sword wantonly and willfully upon the Government aud loyal people of the United 
States. 

What I mean by the term olive-branch, sir, is the exhibition of a generous and concilia- 
tory spirit, which I regret to say has not hitherto characterized our invitations to the people 
of the seceded States to come back and be restored to the inestimable privileges of 
American citizens. All our legislation on the subject, whether we look to the Confisca- 
tion bill, or to those other severe enactments which have called forrh so much bitter 
acrimony on this floor, has been marked by a spirit of vindictiveness and oppression 
utterly unworthy of a great and a Christian nation. Even the proclamation of amnesty 
of President Lincoln fails to hold out any hope of satisfactory results, because its pro- 
visions are not in accordance with the fundamental principle of self-government, that 
the majority must rule. 

There is in this plan for restoration so triumphantly heralded by the friends of the 
Administration an attempt at Usurpation so offensive to the people that no mind regu- 
lated by the usual dictates of sanity and guided by the wisdom of the Constitution could 
ever have elaborated. The proposition made by the sole authority of the President to 
constitute one-tenth of the citizens of a State the whole State, is so preposterous that it 
can scarcely be regarded as serious. Were such a proposition to be acted upon, the 
Government would find itself placed even in a more awkward position than it occupies 
now, for it would have to maintain a standing army in each of the States thus surrepti- 
tiously brought into the Union, in order to protect the dominant minority from violent 
actsj on the part of that overwhelming majority which, by this anomaly in legislation, 
would be totally disfranchised. 

Sir, I am as strongly opposed as any .of my compeers on the other side of the House 
to the re-admission into the Union, with the right of slave property, of any State where 
slavery has been swept away by the onward march of our armies. Whatever may be 
the object of the war, the practical result is the same, and that is, the overthrow of 
slavery in all those portions of slaveholding territory which our armies subjugate ; in 
these the relation of master and slave ceases to exist. The masters retreat as our forces 
advance, and carry with them a portion of their slaves, but the greater part remain be- 
hind and take refuge within our lines ; aud the question is, what shall become of them 
and what are our duties in regard to them ? The American people have behaved ad- 
mirably since this war broke out. They have shown an energj' and elasticity of spirit, 
a power of organization and combination, a readiness to make sacrifices, a patriotic de- 
votion, worthy of the highest praise. Let us not forget the claims of those unhappy freed- 
men whom we have deprived of their masters, their natural guardians and protectors. 

The war is no longer waged for the purpose of restoring the union of all the sovereign 
States that are and ever were in our great national communion, with all the purity 
and strength of our precious Constitution undimmed and untarnished, but for the newly- 
avowed object of subjugation, extermination, and emancipation, until every Southron 
shall be reduced to the most crouching aud abject submission, not to the Constitution, 
but personally to those who hold the sword and the purse of the country. Sir, I am not 
prepared to join in any such crusade. I occupy the same platform today that I did on 
the breaking out of the rebellion. I am in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war, 
by all constitutional means, for the purpose of destroying the military power of the re- 
bellion ; but I am not willing to prolong this war a moment longer than is necessary to 
effect its legitimate object. The consequences of a mistaken policy are too serious to 



suffer me to be governed by the spirit of faction on the one hand or influenced by sub- 
serviency to power on the other. We have now arrived at that stage in the progress of 
the war when we should consider the question of offering to the people of the I'ebel States 
such conciliatory terms as are constitutional, just, and practicable, and most likely to 
lead to the re-establishment of the national authority over the whole country. The terms 
and conditions offered to the insurgents in the President's proclamation of amnesty are 
only calculated to inflame their haired of the North and impel them to renewed resist- 
ance. They are flagrantly at variance with the declarations voluntarily made to the 
people of the loyal States and published to the woi'ld. I desire to see such terms offered 
as a proud and already chastened people can accept without positive degradation to 
themselves — terms which shall recognize the existence of the States with constitutions 
and forms of administrations — terms, in short, calculated to divide our enemies and 
draw the hearts of the repentant people of the decaying confederacy toward our Gov- 
ernment. When these honorable terms are rejected, then I shall be willing to leave 
events to the harsh and cruel necessities of the justice which is vindicated by the 
sword. 

But, sir, although the beneficent spirit which pervaded Mr. Crittenden's resolution to 
■which I have referred, was not allowed to exercise its healthy influence over the delib- 
erations of this body, its provisions were tacitly adopted as a governing principle in the 
conduct of the war — so much so, that when Generals Fremont, Hunter, and Phelps, 
issued their proclamations of emancipation, the President revoked tbem all, declaring 
again and again that he bad no right under the Constitution to emancipate the slaves. 
Those who spoke in behalf of the Executive, and in elucidation of his views, stated 
everywhere — in the public streets, in conventions, and in the Legislatures — that the 
President was determined that the seceded States on re-entering the Union should be 
protected in all their rights. Governor Stanley, who travelled five thousand miles, it is 
supposed at the express request of the President, that he might try to persuade the peo- 
ple of North Carolina out of the rebellion, stated in his speech of June 17, 1862, de- 
livered at Washington, North Carolina, that Mr. Lincoln was no abolitionist, that 
he was the best friend the South had, and that all the Administration wanted was peace. 
Governor Stanley spoke according to instructions, as many others had done before him 
in every section of the country, which had the effect of producing a strong feeling of 
reaction throughout the border States, and adding thousands upon thousands to the re- 
cruiting lists. 

These assurances, Mr. Speaker, concerning the alleged objects of the war were of so 
broad and distinct a character that no Hian of v/ell regulated mind could avoid confiding 
in them. For my own part, I relied as implicitly upon these solemn pledges as the 
magistrates of ancient Rome did on the sybilline books when danger pressed the eternal 
city. I should frankly have despised myself had I suffered a doubt to rise in my own 
mind as to the integrity of purpose which governed the action of the President. All that 
I paused to consider was, that when he took his oath of oSice he swore to maintain the 
Union and enforce the laws ; that had he attempted to trifle with the sacrfed rights of the 
people, and allow a Government to be brokfn up which he had sworn to preserve, he 
would have acted contrary to the requirements of the Constitution, and deserved to be 
impeached. Upon these solemn convictions, I rallied all my feeble strength to the sup- 
port of the Government, the Constitution, and the Union, looking upon secession as eter- 
nal war, and recognizing this great principle — that we are one people, that one we will 
remain, and one we will die. 

I am well aware, sir, that my course in sustaining the war policy of the President has 
subjected me to considerable animadversion, and that my motives of action have fre- 
quently, and sometimes wickedly, been misconstrued by those who either could not un- 
derstand the emergencies of the occasion, or who preferred seeing this great Republic 
split up into fragments rather than yield one iota of their prejudices. But, sir, there is 
one tribunal to which I appeal with feelings of pride and confidence from the judgment 
of disunionists : it is the tribunal of my conscience. The verdict which I find recorded 
there will sustain me under all calumnies and vituperations. When the day shall come 
for me to render an account of my stewardship to my constituents, I shall be able to 
show them that in denouncing treason and in sustaining the Government in its efforts to 
put down rebels in arms I have been true to myself, to my country, and to the steraest 
requirements of the Democratic creed. How much the Democratic party, acting as a 
party, through its organization, may do to bring back peace to the country, it is impos- 



Sible to predict. It will depend upon the steadiness with which it adheres to what ars 
admitted to be Democratic principles. To expect to return to sound practices in 
the Government through the medium of a party which, from any sugsjestions of expe- 
diency, however plausible, departs from its principles, is, of all expectations, the most 
irrational. Peace will return ; the war fury is a passion which exhausts itself. But 
however desirable peace may be, we ought to be united in the determination that when 
it comes it should bring with it the Union of the States under the Federal Constitution. 
Those who fail to recognize this national exigency are not imbued with the true spirit 
of Democracy ; they have read the signs of the times to very little purpose. The Dem- 
ocratic party is essentially a party of progress, and those who aspire to be its leaders 
ought at least to have sense enough to know that we are in the midst of a great revolu- 
tion, and that revolution is progress. 

The only issue before the people at this time is the issue of Union or disintegration, 
I admit that the country needs peace, and I am anxious to secure it ; but I do not want 
to get it by indirection. In my judgment, the only feasible plan of restoration is a vig- 
orous prosecution of the war, or the proffer of conciliatory terms to those who are willing 
'to renew their allegiance to the Federal Government. These are the only paths which, 
lead to peace, and I want the people to understand the stern reality of the fact. It is a 
great mistake, sir, to suppose that political truth and naked fact are meat too strong 
tor their digestion, and that the reality must be largely diluted with romance in order to 
render it palatable to them. I sincerely believe that the best way to deal with the people; 
in order to secure their support to a just cause, is to place before them the true issue in 
the distinctest manner. I believe, furthermore, that good causes have failed more fre- 
quently through the cowardice and double-dealing of professed politicians, under the pre- 
sumption that the people could only be made to do right by deceiving them and playing 
upon their prejudices, than from all other causes combined. In the hurry and spirit of 
the hour men are a little too apt to think doubt and consideration evidences of disloyalty, 
and caution and patience vices rather than virtues. This error has been made several 
times since the war began, and has resulted in great depression among the people, when . 
the truth dispelled the brilliant anticipations of enthusiastic hopes. 

It would seem to a superficial observer that rapid advances are being made in the 
overthrow of popular liberty, that the people are supine and indiiferent on the subject, 
that one essential requisite after another of a popular government is being swept 
away into the mad vortex of fanaticism and passion, itntil hardly the form of our 
grand old fabric of constitutional liberty remains as a mournful memento of the glorious 
past. To those, however, who more critically analyze public events, it will be seen that 
all grave questions outside of the restoration of the Union have been mei'ely postponed 
until the termination of the war. The people have been taught to revere the Consti- 
tution and the Union. The conviction of their judgment is that the structure of our 
Government is well adapted to develop the commercial, agricultural, and industrial re- 
sources of the country, and to promote the general prosperity and happiness. The Con- 
stitution in its operation prior to the rebellion contained every safeguard requisite for a 
prosperous career. The history of every nation demonstrates that its citizens will ac- 
cept the form of government best calculated to give protection to person and property 
and to promote the general welfare. Trade, commerce, agriculture, and all the in- 
dustrial pursuits, thrive under a stable government and languish and perish under the 
opposite one. Under the Constitution the equilibrium is well preserved. The passage 
of a law requires the co-operation of this honorable body, the Senate, and the Execu- 
tive. If we pass an unconstitutional measure, the Senate operates as a check ; if both 
bodies pass such an act, the President can veto it ; if all co-operate, the Supreme Court 
can interpose its decision and declare the act void. I know of no nation in which the 
rights of the people are more carefully and admirably guarded. In addition, this is the 
only country in modern times that has thus far successfully demonstrated the capacity 
of the people for self government. This problem is now on trial. For these reasons, 
when the rebellion began, the people with great unanimity rallied to the support of the 
Government without respect to party; such unanimity continued until the prosecution 
of the war was diverted from the original object, the restoration of the Union, and a series 
of measures were inaugurated, such as confiscation, abolition, emancipation, suspension 
of the writ of habeas corpus in the loyal States, and others of a like character, which 
divided the North and united the South; abolitionism abolished slavery in the District 
of Columbia ; confiscation merely enabled property to be confiscated in such parts of 



6 

the country as have been recovered from the rebels ; the emancipation proclamation 
has done nothing more, as yet, than the legitimate operation of the war power would 
have achieved, that is, liberated slaves where the army has secured possession. It is 
evident, in my judgment, that the whole policy of the Grovernment has been, since the 
adoption of the Crittenden resolution by this honorable body, to postpone indefinitely 
the close of the war. Entertaining these views, I deemed it my duty to oppose all these 
collateral issues, such as arbitrary arrests, coufiscation, suspension of the writ of habeas 
corpus, and the freedom of the press in loyal States, and emancipation, aa having a ten- 
dency to retard a successful issue to this most deplorable war. 

Many honorable members of this House for whom I have great respect, supposed that 
these measures, great in themselves, and especially that of arbiti-ary arrests, were para- 
mount in the public mind, and would overshadow all other questions. I concede the 
gravity of the point involved, but still, great as that and the other collateral issues are, tbe 
people regarded the life of the nation and the problem of self-government as paramount, 
and desired these issues first settled before permitting others to engross their attention. 
The Union restored or separation accomplished, these grave questions will then become 
, a subject of sprioua inquiry, and the culpable parties be held responsible for the inroads' 
made upon personal rights and liberty. 

In addition to the series of measures to which I have referred, we are now called upon 
to sanction a joint resolution to amend the Constitution so that all persons shall be equal 
undet- the law, without regard to coloi-, and so that no person shall hereafter be held in 
bondage. I might object to this amendment, sir, upon the ground that to prohibit the 
establishment or contmuance of slavery as a legal relation would be virtually to admit 
that it may exist as such legal relation, an9 that such an admission in the Constitution 
would leave that instrument, in respect to hyman liberty, in a worse state than it is at 
present. Upon this point, however, I do not intend to enlarge; for, as I understand it, 
the fact of servitude among a people will be little aflPected by any provision which their 
constitution m'-ty or may not embody. 

Sir, it would seem to me that the sum total of the wisdom of the ruling party is con- 
tained in the dogma that the negro is exactly like the white man. To some it may seem 
that this is not very much, hardly enough to constitute the foundation of a political sys- 
tem and an administration policy for a great nation and a numerous people ; but this 
is a matter of opinion. Some may suppose that the basis of a political system ought — 
observing the uses of sciences in general — to be laid upon some fact, the existence of 
which is capable of demontitration ; but, sir, we, the people of the United States, are 
trying great and sublime experiments in politics, and if we can succeed in making 
something stand upon nothing, will it not show that we are justly entitled to the reputa- 
tion for political sagacity and adroitness which we have been considerably more ready 
to claim than the benighted statesmen of Europe have been willing to accord ? So far 
as I can see, Mr. Speaker, in any form of civilization resembling our own, servitude 
will always exist ; and servitude rendered necessary by circumstances which the servile 
party cannot control, is bondage. Bondage will differ in form, as it is modified by the 
character of the parties between whom it exists, and it will differ in intensity as it is 
affected more or less by external conditions. The relation of master and servant in the 
South is natural to this extent : it is the relation into which the white and black races, 
being brought together, naturally fell under the influences of mutual necessities for 
personal security, social tranquility, and subsistence. The relation of master and servant 
in Great Britain is affected by the pressure of a costly Govtrnmeut, which draws from 
labor, through capital, the means to defray its annual expenses. Servitudes differ in 
degree and they differ in kind, but the most important difference of the two — the one that is at 
once the most significant and the least changeable — is the difference in degree ; a man 
may be nominally free, but if be is a workman without capital, and lives in a state of 
society of which it may be said " once a peasant, always a peasant ; once a factory 
operative, always a factory operative ; " if the constant labor of his body when in health 
is only just sufficient to provide him with food and clothing, and if old age, or a few days 
of illness, inevitably reduces him to pauperism or starvation, he has little to boast of his 
freedom, and would find it hard to discover wherein it ministers to his elevation or his 
happiness. 

The freedom of a British working man consists in a limited liberty to change his 
employer. He is descended from ancestors who toiled as he toils, all their days for food, 
clothing, and shelter, and these scanty in quantity and poor in quality. He begets a 



posterity to -whom he transmits liis poverty and his hopelessness, and his whole life, from 
his cradle to his grave, is one long, desperate struggle against starvation and nakedness. 
This is British liberty to a majority of the people ot England, This is what it has been 
for hundreds of years, with no prospect of change but for the worse. Legislation has 
been tried abundantly, with a view to work improvements, and with worse than no avail. 
England has always had and now has her theorists who have labored to create imaginary 
Utopias, but that vast war debt, which, like a millstone, is grinding the people to powder, 
and pressing them into the earth, is a thing that cannot be lilted by constitutional clauses, 
or parliamentary expedients. That legislator will do well, Mr, Speaker, who can devise 
an amendment to the Constitution which shall relieve the people of the United States, 
without regard to color, from the pressure of a war debt larger in proportion to their 
resources than that of Great Britain. The debt is inevitable, it already exists, it is 
being increased with giddy rapidity. There is nothing in our institutions to prevent 
national indebtedness Irom producing the same effects upon the people of the United 
States that it has produced upon the people of Great Britain. Here is a thing, sir, 
which may well enlist the wisdom of the wisest statesmen of the country. If nature 
has made the negro different in any respect from the white man, all the constitutional 
clauses in the world will do nothing toward obliterating that difference. If it has made 
the negro like the white man, that likeness will at the proper time assert itself without 
constitutional assistance. Nature can neither be hindered nor accelerated by legislative 
contrivances, and no more than the European can the African be elevated to any valuable 
purpose by the will of another. 

It was declared by me at the last session that for generations to come the laboring 
men of the United States would be required to work one or two hours in each day more 
than at present, in order to pay off the debt contracted by this war. Now, sir, under all 
the advantages afforded by a new country, and circumstances, in many respects, favorable 
to an extraordinary degree, the average laboring mau of the United States has hitherto 
done little more than live. Impose upon him the necessity of two hours or of one hour 
additional labor per dienr to support himself and his family, and he is, call him by what 
flattering title you may, a bondman. Against this bondage, the most hopeless and 
inexorable otf all servitudes, no constitutional amendments, however cunningly devised, 
will afford security ; it will descend from father to son, engraving, as it does in 
England, its characters, revolting and indelible, deeper and deeper upon each succeeding 
generation. 

Mr. Speaker, if at a time when no causes of excitement were disturbing the minds of 
the people a despot had arisen over us, to decree and enforce upon the operative 
population of the United States two hours per day of additional labor for the remainder 
of their lives, what a cry would have gone up from all parts of the land against an act 
so tyrannical ! What protest would have been entered by such, if any there were, who 
were permitted to discuss and condemn ! What exhortations there would have been to 
combine for resistance, and what citations of principles against a domination so 
heartless and destructive ! What pictures, at once true and revolting, would have been 
drawn of the degradation of the people, broken in spirit and pressed to the dust by 
excessive toil and intolerable exaction, and what fiery indignation would have been felt 
and expressed against the unnatural monster by whom the wrong was devised and 
executed ! The result is not altered because we happen to reach it by a process less 
direct. The evil will be the same, the wrong the same, the same the sutferiug when the 
excitement has passed away and the fact remains, and we see it in its nakedness ; 
but then, if it is not so now, it will be too late to permit the discovery to be of much 
avail. 

Without pursuing this point, I would say that slavery has always been and is re- 
garded as a domestic question. The right to abolish it does and ought to rest with the 
States in which it exists. Since the organization of the Government the law of climate 
and soil has controlled the subject, and has caused the abolition of slavery in six of the 
original States, and either abolished or prohibited it in all but nine of the new States 
since admitted. This Government is one of delegated powers, and those not conferred 
are reserved to the States respectively or to the people. In regard to slavery the Con- 
siitution is silent, and therefore no power exists to amend it in the respect indicated ; 
and in addition, in my judgment, that instrument co^iterapUited that all the States should 
participate in any amendment thereof. Sir, I do not stand here as the apologist of 
slavery, but merely to insist that we have no right to incorporate the proposed amend- 



ment, and that even if the right exists it is a most injudicious time for the exercise of 
the power when we should desir-; to bring back the seceded States to loyalty and obedi- 
ence. Our action in this respect cannot fail to add fuel to the flame, widen the breach 
already existing, further embitter the South, and prolong the sanguinary contest. I do 
not regard this question as having been decided by the late election. The issue there 
involved was the vigorous prosecution of the war for the restoration of the Union. En- 
tertaining these ideas, I cannot vote for the proposed amendment. 

Such are some of my views, Mr. Speaker, on some of the most important questions 
which agitate the public mind at this moment. If the war be brought to a close within 
a reasonable time, and a united country be the result, this great Republic^ with its im- 
mense resources, will spring into new life, and under the blessed reign of peace will 
ultimately shake off its burdens and repose queen like among the nations of the earth. 

We must be prepared to make still greater sacrifices than any that have gone before, 
if necessary, to save the Union ; but the considerations to which I have adverted ad- 
monish us, as I have observed already, not to prolong the war a moment longer than is 
necessary to effect the legitimate object. Let us '' ireful lest in seeking to obtain a 
fancied benefit for others we do not destroy ou' '''■ has begTTjustly satd-,-8ir^_that 

to most men experience is like the stern-lights of a ship, which illumine only the track^' 
it has passed. It will be a sad thing for the Republic if those who have it in their power 
to control its destinies are recorded by history in such a category. On the use to be 
made hereafter of the light of experience depends our whole future destiny. It is to 
decide whether we tak^^ the first t'iatal step of disintegration which will lead us to the po- 
sition of those petty States whose weight in the world's council is represented by a 
cipher, and whose little quarrels only provoke a smile, or whether we remain a great peo- 
ple — homogeneous, united and powerful. 



McGiLL & WiTHEROw, Pdntcrs, 366 E street, Washington, D. C. 

• W60 













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